An autonomous vehicle is a vehicle that is capable of sensing its environment and navigating with little or no user input. It does so by using sensing devices such as radar, lidar, image sensors, and the like. Autonomous vehicles further use information from global positioning systems (GPS) technology, navigation systems, vehicle-to-vehicle communication, vehicle-to-infrastructure technology, and/or drive-by-wire systems to navigate the vehicle.
While recent years have seen significant advancements in autonomous vehicles, such vehicles might still be improved in a number of respects. For example, localization—i.e., the determination of the geographical position of a vehicle—is often accomplished via a combination of global positioning system (GPS) data and direct observation of structures and objects in the vicinity of the vehicle via optical, radar, and lidar sensor data. Such localization may be challenging in some contexts, such as in weather conditions that reduce the effectiveness of the sensors used for localization.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide systems and methods for localization in autonomous vehicles. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.